Object to campaign funds from out of state

Outside influences
Gov. Chris Christie is scavenging for campaign funds out of state (“Christie cashes in on favors from 2010,” May 12). How sad that out-of-state rich people can influence my state and my lifestyle.

I’ve lived in New Jersey my entire life. I’ve worked in the public and private sectors, and always submitted my tax form on time. It’s a shame out-of-state people can shape the policies of the state I live in. Where are the ethics in such fundraising? Government belongs to the people governed, not to those who live elsewhere and have more money.

More ways to spend
Columnist Tom Moran’s article, “Lower property taxes? Here’s a plan” (May 15), in which he seems to support Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Lou Greenwald’s proposal to give municipalities the power to impose local income and sales taxes as a way to lower property taxes is simply delusional.

You may recall that when New Jersey instituted the state income tax many years ago, all revenue from the new tax was to go toward controlling the upward spiral of property taxes. And we all know how that worked out.

We live in New Jersey, so we should know how our politicians and our elected legislators operate. Give them an opening like allowing municipalities to impose new income and sales taxes, and they will find new ways to spend it. They are uniquely dysfunctional when it comes to government spending and amazingly innovative in finding ways to raise new monies to fund new initiatives.Allen Riley, South Plainfield

Medicare is well-run
With so many concerns about efficient use of public monies, you would think Republicans would be proud of Medicare. It is far and away the most efficient health insurance program in the country. And solid health insurance is necessary for efficient health care services. Without insurance, people use hospital emergency rooms far too often. With insurance, they can go to the doctor and prevent many expensive problems. So Medicare helps keep medical spending down.

The majority of Americans understand that access to health care through the highly efficient Medicare system is a good deal. Most Americans want to know that, if they needed it, Medicare would be there for them and their families. With record unemployment and so many without medical insurance, it is wrong to eliminate Medicare — by sneaky caps or any other means.Kate Dunsmore, Union

Not right to blame gov
Blaming the “governor’s wrong priorities” for another large increase in the tax levy in Union County is disingenuous considering that five other counties were able to reduce their tax levy in 2011, and no tax increase over the past two years has been as large as Union County’s $26.1 million (“County’s revised budget calls for lower tax levy,” May 15). Have those other counties not had their state funding reduced also?

Even if the funding for Runnells or Delaney Hall were restored, how can anyone be certain that the money would be used to reduce taxes and not hire more political cronies, get a bigger headliner for Musicfest, upgrade the menu at the catered freeholder meetings, put up whoever went to Palm Beach at the Four Seasons instead of having to rough it at the Breakers, expand the U.C. Directions propaganda arm into a daily, or build a $15 million golf clubhouse?

The only way the attack on Gov. Chris Christie’s priorities by a representative of Union County could have been more unseemly would have been if it had been written in the VIP tent of the Musicfest, guarded by county cops, chugging free beers, and waiting for Train to perform. A first draft could well have been penned under such circumstances.John Bury, Kenilworth

Helping the mentally ill
Judy Adrian (“Dealing with the fallout when incarceration exacerbates mental illness,” May 15) is right to point out that mental disorders are shamefully going untreated in our nation’s prisons. Countless individuals who would be better off in psychiatric hospitals languish in squalid jail cells. Tragically, in New Jersey, there are more people suffering from serious mental illness in our jails and prisons than in our psychiatric hospitals. As a matter of poor public policy and even poorer attempts at budget management, we have chosen to criminalize biological illnesses.

Fortunately, progressive jail-based mental health initiatives have done much to address the lack of resources, training and availability of medication aptly cited by Adrian.
We have known for years that an additional, substantial number of individuals with mental illnesses live in abhorrent conditions in state-funded boarding homes as opposed to being provided with quality housing. To make matters even worse, Gov. Chris Christie is also proposing the closing of a state psychiatric hospital in 2012.

Turning our backs on the most vulnerable among us to balance the state budget is not the conduct of a principled society. In fact, such action becomes a contributor to a myriad of other problems, and not a part of any moral, financial or ethical solution.Robert N. Davison, executive director, Mental Health Association of Essex County